Unique fall protection situation ( looking for advice)

I have a unique fall protection situation and I am looking for some advice from someone who has dealt with a similar situation.

I work in a warehouse and our bulk racking (full pallet storage) is 2 pallets deep ( each location holds two pallets) and 31, high.

We used to use the straight 6, long lanyards with no extras, a rack hook, and full body harness. We had teammates abusing the gear and it was too much force and distance if they fell, so after much research and questions to alot of people -- we decided on a retractable lanyard and full body harness.

They work great together and we were able to reduce both the fall distance and force. Here is where I need your help.

With the double deep locations we have pallets that get dumped and twisted in the second deep location, this requires a teammate to walk out into the bulk racking to fix the pallet, the locations are 6’ tall, With no decking, just support runners for the pallets which are not rated to hold enough weight to be used as an anchor. If we used a 6’ shock absorbing lanyard a teammate would not have enough lanyard to bend over and pick up dumped cases. Currently they need to switch from a 8’ retractable to a 12’ retractable if the second deep pallet is dumped.

With the changes we made we have been able to shrink the fall distance down to 2’ or less and reduce the amount of swing fall. But the goal is to eliminate swing fall. With not being able to tie in above on a lot of the locations the retractable lanyard hooked to a stock picker seems to be the best solution. I’ve talked to a lot of professionals about this and no one seems to be able to help.

Replies to This Discussion

You mentioned that the location is in a warehouse so I'm assuming there is overhead frame work or structures. If that is so, you have several options you can consider. I would need more information and details in order to narrow them down and provide you the best and most efficient options. We engineer and manufacture a variety of systems (many of them for custom applications) that will meet you needs. If you would like more information, please feel free to contact me. I look forward to hearing from you.

If you are looking for safe horizontal movement and vertical movement, what about looking through the many fall safety websites that have system providing most any imagined, and perhaps unimagined scenarios and set-ups. Good luck, stay safe

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